Poll

Onus is on LPAs to support neighbourhood plan groups

Date: 2/9/2016

Planning magazine reports that only a handful of neighbourhood plans (out of nearly 280) have not passed examination since the introduction of the Localism Act.

Stephen Tapper, the Planning Officers Society's neighbourhood plans specialist told Planning that on having their plan failed teams should "pick themselves up, have another look at the issues highlighted in the report and work through them thoroughly".

Tapper adds that the onus should be on councils to support groups. For a plan to fail at the examination stage, he said, it has to get fundamental points wrong - points that should have been picked up by the local council. The relevant local planning authority "should make sure these mistakes are not made", he added.

Tapper said that the plan for Coton Park in Rugby, which failed examination in January 2015, included a policy that required a lot of highway works, "but these fell into the county council and highway authority's remit, making the realisation of the policy dependent on third parties". This, Tapper said, "is basic stuff that local authorities working more closely with neighbourhood plan teams should be expected to have put right".